The most satisfying one for me personally would be a Stormtrooper uprising because it engages the most with Finn’s background and the moral dilemma he represents. Force sensitive Finn for me is just established canon whether IX chooses to show it or not, and the only thing that keeps audiences in denial is racism (which is why it’s a good idea for IX to make it explicit, of course). What I find REALLY interesting Force-wise, personally, is not even so much Force sensitive Finn as Force immune Finn, leader of the uprising, having a showdown with Kylo Ren. But if I can’t have that I see an uprising without explicit Force sensitivity to be the next best thing.
Tag: rebelfinn
I don’t get why people think Finn both being a military leader and having the Force is somehow strange for Star Wars. After all, we have a rather outsized example of this already.
It’s not just the combination of Force and military abilities either, but also the characters’ story positions. Finn being the “war” part of the triad gives him the position Leia should
have occupied in the OT, the character with ties to both the military
and the Force who embodies what the war is about: The human face of the
Empire’s atrocities, the survivor who chose to fight. Leia should have
been the central figure of the war and not Han’s plus-one on what
were essentially his plots and missions.
Done right Leia would have been
more like Katniss in The Hunger Games, damaged and traumatized from her
experiences, inspiring by her story and example. RO tried to shoehorn
Jynn into Katniss’s Mockingjay role except it never worked because Jynn
didn’t have the representative story. Obviously the Mockingjay figures
were Cassian and the Jedhans (Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze), but yet again SW
shied away from giving center stage to victims of wide-scale atrocities.
It shied away again with Finn in TLJ.
This refusal to have central Mockingjay figures, I believe, reflects SW’s basic ambivalence as a franchise that is more comfortable with destined saviors than with exploited and destroyed peoples saving themselves. Maybe that comes of SW being a USAmerican franchise dealing with fascism, the contradiction of a country that is fundamentally fascistic and imperialistic trying to tell itself a story of being antifascist and anti-imperialist. America can’t face the full implication of truly upending its fascist underpinnings, in fiction as in reality. Instead the brutal form of fascism is replaced by the “soft” fascism of worshipping benign supermen.
Then along comes JJ Abrams, someone in a position to know the contradictions and falsity in the story America tells about itself. He shows the New Republic’s compromise with fascism destroying it morally as well as physically, a year ahead of the 2016 election. He shows how the worship of the Skywalkers as the chosen line gave us Kylo Ren. He gives us Finn, one of the First Order’s victims, as a strong and central figure.
Finn in IX could be the character that Leia could have been–the one who ties it all together, the military plot and the Force plot, the story of war with the story of spirituality and morality. He could be the character that embodies both the evil of the First Order and the determination, on a personal, visceral level, to fight it. He could be the character that brings audiences face to face with what it means when people who are considered expendable in the quest for greatness stand up and fight back. He could solve the Star Wars dilemma and finally break the vicious cycle of destruction the galaxy far, far away has become trapped in. I certainly hope so.
(Spun off from a discussion with @fuckyeahrebelfinn [link])
JJ is missing out if IX doesn’t have a Stormtrooper rebellion. If JJ could combine elements of Finn trying to free the troopers and also using an SW version of an Underground Railroad, as well as emphasizing Finn’s foil dynamics with Kylo, his arc could be the bloody best.
I think it’s become all but imperative for anything like a realistic Resistance victory after Johnson killed off all but a dozen of the Resistance in TLJ. The Resistance is toast if they can’t shave off the FO’s numerical advantage. It would give Finn a meaningful plot that isn’t just busywork, would bring his and Kylo’s enmity to a head (you thought Kylo hated Finn in TFA? Wait until Finn dissolves his little wannabe Empire from under his feet), would bring the series full circle from the enslavement of the Clones, would give the culturally iconic imagery of the Stormtroopers a whole new and positive meaning, making for something actually subversive and new, AND would be excellent fodder for post-IX shows and comics. Honestly it would be a giant missed opportunity on so many levels if they passed on a Trooper uprising.
I fear something terrible has happened.
– Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
Why Kylo Ren is a Christian hero and Finn is not
Along with the more visible reasons, one possible motivation for the insistence that Kylo Ren is the hero of the saga may be a Christian attitude
toward morality and evil. In areas where Christianity is wielded as a tool of cultural dominance, the Christian teaching of redemption and forgiveness has frequently been twisted into cheap grace–the idea that you can be forgiven for anything if you’re sorry enough, and what’s more, you don’t have to be held accountable or change in any meaningful way.
Another factor may be the
contrast between the Christian and Jewish concepts of evil that @jewishcomeradebot talked
about: Evil tends to be an otherworldly, demonic thing in Christianity but is an
all too human phenomenon in Judaism, and Ren’s character in TFA is an example of the latter (link, current link to full post).
Take these together and, for
large portions of a Christian/Christianized audience, someone who
actually feels sorry or conflicted can’t be truly evil because they are too
human and still redeemable. Since Kylo Ren is obviously human and feels conflict about his actions he is just a “sorry” away from a get out of jail free card and the hero slot. It doesn’t hurt that he’s an able-bodied white cis man, either.
In contrast, Finn in TFA is a terrible Christian hero, at least if we look through the lens of cheap grace and Christianity as cultural dominance. He isn’t shown feeling enough conflict for acts
like killing and lying. He isn’t torn up about his fundamentally
shameful and sinful nature like a good Christian redemptive hero
should be. When he does speak to Rey about the shame he unfairly felt from his
abuse it’s in the past tense, though of course the kind of treatment he has suffered will reverberate for a while yet.
As I discussed in a meta arguing Finn stands for the Balance in the Force (link), Finn does not beat himself up even for his more morally complex acts, either. He fights and kills Stormtroopers
in self-defense and the defense of others, but makes no soliloquies about
how he is a monster destined to kill. He makes things right after
lying to Rey by coming clean to her in a confession that obviously cost
him a great deal, and his conscience is clear. He doesn’t even pretend to be sorry
about misleading the Resistance so he can get to Rey, but he makes up for it by handing them a huge victory. He’s an actually
upright if complicated man who acts on his own moral code, and
he doesn’t feel the need for redemption or salvation.
Finn’s uncompromising dignity, his utter rightness with himself, may be
one of the few unforgivable sins in the kind of Christian framework I described.
Mass murder and genocide can be forgiven if you’re sorry enough, but
failing to suffer from your own sinful nature and not needing a lord and
savior? That’s a bridge too far in some people’s eyes. A
man like that is too free and independent, and cannot be controlled by shame or threats. The
antipathy for this kind of independence can interact in toxic ways with
racism and antiblackness as well, because Finn in Earth terms happens to
be from a group that society says are lesser and should be fundamentally ashamed of themselves.
Of course there is a great deal of racism at play in the fact that large sections of fandom see a mass murderer and patricide as the anointed hero of the galaxy, while at the same time dismissing a conscientious and brave hero as either a violent monster or a minor character of no importance. In addition, however, there may be a cultural divide in that Kylo Ren comes in a more familiar mold to many members of the audience–that of the (white) redemptive hero who can get away with literally anything, for whom grace is so cheap as to be free. Finn in TFA, on the other hand, is something altogether different and, in the eyes of many, worse: Someone who is at peace with himself where he has no business being. Perhaps it is no surprise, though no less sad, that the sequel felt the need to violently punish and mock Finn for the “sin” of his pride.
So I’m far from done with this, but I’ve compiled a page of links to my meta-analytical posts (link). It’s accessible from the top menu in the desktop theme. I also put the page link in the description, but I don’t think it works on mobile. I did a word count and I’ve written over 25,000 words of Finn-centric meta alone, wow. I could write a book about him lmao.
I will grant that I was basing that post more on what I’d read about cults (I also had no idea that that other post existed). But I was under the impression that the First Order went way deeper into thought control procedures than ordinary citizens of totalitarian regimes went through, like hypnotic conditioning.
The exact nature of Stormtrooper conditioning hasn’t been clarified in the movies, but there does seem to be some highly unethical shit going on using psychiatric technology/mindforming. Terex in the Poe Dameron comics was made outright robotic to keep him in line. The “reconditioning” that Finn was threatened with after Tuanul may have looked something like that.
These techniques don’t seem to be the first resort, however, and mostly the FO seems to rely on more mundane propaganda touting itself as the ultimate good. Finn was mostly a model cadet before his defection, which makes it likely that he would have escaped the more invasive procedures before his disobedience in his first battle.
I mean don’t get me wrong, the kind of story you referenced in your prior ask (link) could be a valid storyline for an escaped Stormtrooper. I just don’t think it’s fair to denigrate Finn’s story based on that one specific mold, since different people react in a range of different ways to survive the unbearable.
Finn’s Parentage Theories: Legends Edition
Clockwise from upper-middle-right.
Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian
Luke and Lando raise a child together, either adopted or through a surrogate. When Kylo destroys the temple, Luke and Lando are devastated when they think their child is killed in the fire. However, all children are brainwashed and recruited by the First Order.
Pros: Uses a fan-favorite ship from Legends, largely thanks to the Marvel Comics. Would give Luke and Lando both a temporary happy ending and a good reason to resign to depression for a while. The timeline would add up and it would give potentially sweet scenes for Finn, Lando, and Luke in Episode IX.
Cons: Would be really depressing. Unlikely for Disney to have an onscreen gay relationship not played for laughs or cheap diversity credit. Would cause some people to view it as Skywalker=naturally good, even though Finn wouldn’t be his biological son.
Nick Rostu
A Force-sensitive warrior from Haruun Kal, Nick Rostu was young at the end of the Clone Wars, but seemed to be about Luke’s age when they met. Regardless, in this universe, Knights of Ren took children while posing as Jedi Knights. Rostu, remembering his friends Mace and Depa, let them, believing their lies that it was for medical purposes. The adults were knocked out, and the Force-sensitive children were stolen to make an elite squad of stormtroopers.
Pros: Allows a Star Wars culture only seen in books to join the screens. Would allow Finn to have a big, loving community to return to as well. Nick’s fighting style is also unique, being a sniper trickster.
Cons: Would come out of nowhere for fans outside of the EU. The timeline wouldn’t add up well. A white director could easily default on stereotypes when designing a culture of jungle-dwellers.
Qu Rahn
Qu Rahn was a young survivor of Order 66, and lived into the early years of the New Republic. With a bit of time displacement, we could change his noble end to be at the hand of Snoke, and his defense of Finn is similar to his defense of Kyle Katarn.
Pros: Would fit with Finn being based off from Kyle Katarn. Adds a connection to one of the most popular EU stories. Would be a way for Finn to get his own lightsaber.
Cons: Could anger Dark Forces fans. Wouldn’t allow closure for Finn’s arc.
Giddean Danu
As one of the signers of the Delegation of 2000, and a founder of the Rebellion, perhaps the Senator of Kuat was imprisoned in a secret Imperial jail, along with his family. His son and his son’s wife had a child after the death of the Emperor, but the Imperial Remnant led by Rae Sloane kept them in captivity and took all Rebellion children to be First Order grunts.
Pros: Reference to the prequels. Allows a new surge of Resistance allies. Some resemblance between Christopher Kirby and John Boyega. Has ties to the Space-Prince Finn theory.
Cons: Would be a bit of a surprise. It’s unlikely Palpatine would take prisoners from the delegation instead of killing them.
Novoc Vevut
In Legends, Novoc adopted and raised the boy who would go on to marry Boba Fett’s grandfather. This version would be biological father to one of the stolen Mandalorian children that he and the new Mandalore Boba Fett have been seeking. Novoc would also have his adopted son Ghes Orade, who would act like a big brother for Finn.
Pros: Similarity to both Mandalorian Finn theory and LJ-writes-verse Sequel Trilogy. Provide a plot-based excuse to bring in Mandalorians and Boba Fett. Would be suitably epic without contradicting previous material.
Cons: Always have to deal with the “Boba should be dead” crowd. Morrison and Logan are both a bit too young to play old Boba (but makeup would fix that). Would raise the question of “where were these guys in the last two movies?”
Barney
One of Luke’s earliest Jedi apprentices, despite not having any real demonstrable Force powers, Barney is a humble, kind man from Marvel comics. He lived on Belderone, a world where AT-AT’s were built, making it a target for First Order raiders. After his home was raided, he has been working any job to pursue any lead as to where his son might be.
Pros: Barney is both sweet and determined, and would be a likable addition. Would also be poor enough to explain a lack of Galactic presence in previous films. Also provide a cute moment for Rey and Finn when she talks about living in an AT-AT, and Finn’s dad makes an instant connection.
Cons: Is named Barney, which is reminiscent of a certain purple dinosaur. Might not reasonably find Finn on his own power. Likable but potentially devoid of conflict once he reunites with his son.
Akanah Norand Goss Pell
Akanah was an ex of Luke’s, and a member of the Fallanassi, a religious organization that thought of the Force as a river known as the White Current, flowing and rippling. Akanah was absorbed into the entity Abeloth, aka Mother of Mortis, and died. However, what if when Abeloth was defeated, she and her avatars transferred to a different timeline rather than a different time period? Akanah, revived, and driven mad by the process, is unable to keep her newborn son in safety.
Pros: Bridge the old and new timelines. Provide a set-up for a potentially grand tenth movie. Add some mystery to an otherwise straightforward saga.
Cons: Somewhat depressing. Akanah would be a bit too old to have a child (but it is sci-fi). Would derail the main conflict of the sequel trilogy.
Katya M’buele
Katya was a friend of Han’s before the Battle of Yavin. In Legends, she died helping Luke fight demons in Marvel’s comics, but this version could live past the battle and become a Rebel Hero like Kes and Shara. She would be in the Resistance, as a slightly older woman, running smuggling and transport operations, always looking for her son that went missing at a young age.
Pros: Ties to the Resistance strengthened. Could appear as a young woman in a Solo sequel. Would not derail the conflict.
Cons: Underwhelming reveal. Ultimately too serendipitous to happen naturally (but there is the Force.) Not a very popular character.
Those are just some theories to rebut the idea that nobody’s thinking of some potential parentages for Finn! I might do a canon one, if this goes over well. My favorite is Luke/Lando, but I think Novoc would make for the best story. (Moth)
Finn Fett-Kryze, inheritor of the honor of the Mandalore and the will of the Skywalkers. (Moth)
L.J.'s Obsessions 